Optical equipment of various kinds, which will be generally defined in the following description as "optical sensors" for the sake of brevity, are already known, in which light beams are used to carry out different kinds of operations, such as detecting the variations that said light beams undergo in the presence of outside physical phenomena, the passage of current for example, thereby obtaining data corresponding to a measurement of the pheonomena themselves.
For the purpose, one or more light beams are supplied to the sensor by means of optical fibers which must be connected to the sensor at exact locations on the structure thereof.
Under these situations, fibers must be exactly located at the positions for which they are designed in order to make them correctly aligned with the optical paths inside the sensor.
In the case of laboratory equipment, the fibers are supported and disposed according to the desired positions and orientations by means of micrometric positioners of general use which are adapted to carry out translating or rotating operations on the members they are connected to by means of graduated scale micrometers through which the desired equipment adjustment is achieved.
Although these embodiments are expensive, bulky and delicate, they are acceptable in a laboratory, in case of equipment designed to carry out particular measurements, and they can be subsequently disassembled for operating in other different configurations due to the fact that they employ separate elements of general use.
If, on the contrary, equipment which is intended to be put on the market is made, or when the laboratory equipment is intended for permanent use, the embodiments described hereinbefore are quite unacceptable.
In particular, when commercial equipment is concerned, a reduced bulkiness and structures of great solidity are required which cannot be achieved by the use of positioners adapted for laboratories of the type described hereinbefore.
The industrial production of a sensor intended for commercialization may have accurately formed parts or housings so as to limit the requirements for position adjustments. However, the achievable construction tolerances, particularly in the case of large sized equipment providing optical paths extending some centimeters or decimeters beyond the fibers, cannot avoid an adjustment of the input and output directions of the light beam which is necessary in order to achieve the greatest intensity of the optical signals.
In addition, in some applications there is the requirement of using sensors in which metal or current conducting components are absent, whereas the laboratory positioners cannot omit the use of metal parts, that is, parts made of steel or light alloys.
Therefore, it is necessary to produce optical connectors adapted to join the ends of fibers carrying or receiving the optical signals to the equipment in which said signals are processed, which connectors will enable the required alignments to be accomplished while avoiding the use of metal materials and bulky and delicate equipment.